My god there's some thick kids about these days

[Evangelion]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/08/1...

... "There was nothing I could do" ???

Silly bh could have tried yanking it on again.

[mybrainhurts]

They were interviewed on radio earlier. The kid was very chirpy.

Grandmother said it had an automatic handbrake, so she couldn't have left it off.

Pardon...?

[ShadownINja]

To think, one day she'll have children.

[DickyC]

Knocked the handbrake off.

It's just too easy to knock the lever up and knock the button in and knock the lever down.

Something should be done.

[cpas]

Parked on a slope near to a cliff-face - and relying on just the handbrake and not leaving the car in gear?!! Don't these people learn anything?!

[Jameshs]

How do you accidently knock off a handbrake?

[MadmanO/T People]

Jameshs said:

How do you accidently knock off a handbrake?

I was wondering the same thing.

Did she not think to step on that pedal in the middle? And why was she in the driver's seat, anyway?


Cheers,
Madman of the People

Edited by MadmanO/T People on Wednesday 19th August 04:34

[VladD]

ShadownINja said:

To think, one day she'll have children.

In the next 3 years in my guess.

[Frankeh]

This whole thread better be sarcasm..

[lozriva]

mybrainhurts said:

They were interviewed on radio earlier. The kid was very chirpy.

Grandmother said it had an automatic handbrake, so she couldn't have left it off.

Pardon...?

That is probably true when the car shuts down in the last couple of seconds the ECU engages the hand break in center dash...

I would guess the dangerous part was surely the keys would have been in the ignition other wise it wouldn't have turned off as no power, that is why they are ment to be safer for having kids left in the car. I would bet she was playing about with controls, either way lucky escape really.

[mrmr96]

Evangelion said:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/08/1...

... "There was nothing I could do" ???

Silly bh could have tried yanking it on again.

"My god there's some thick kids about these days", and then follow up with a comment like the above. Oh, the irony.

As discussed in the other thread running on this subject the car in question had a push-button operated electric handbrake. The release button is right in the middle of the centre consol, near the radio. Really poor design as it's totally plausible that she could have hit the button in error and released it.

(I'm not sure how this system interacts with keys/ignition barrel position, but maybe the keys were in and the ignition on to make the radio work?)

Had it been a conventional lever/button operated handbrake then it would be somewhat more obvious that if letting it down makes the car roll then pulling it up might stop it. But that's not the case in the car in question, so you'd do well to retract your comment. Not just you, OP, but the others too.

[barks]

Not out of the realms of possibility for it to have drive by wire brakes either!

[Negative Creep]

Jesus wept, she's 11 not 21. Did no one sit in the driver's seat and play with the buttons when they were kids? I'd say steering round an obstacle then getting out in time is pretty damn smart

[Evangelion]

What I also found pretty unbelievable is the fact that she actually managed to steer round a tent full of people so she knew what the wheel did but she couldn't steer away from the cliff!

[CommanderJameson]

mrmr96 said:

Evangelion said:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/08/1...

... "There was nothing I could do" ???

Silly bh could have tried yanking it on again.

"My god there's some thick kids about these days", and then follow up with a comment like the above. Oh, the irony.

As discussed in the other thread running on this subject the car in question had a push-button operated electric handbrake. The release button is right in the middle of the centre consol, near the radio. Really poor design as it's totally plausible that she could have hit the button in error and released it.

(I'm not sure how this system interacts with keys/ignition barrel position, but maybe the keys were in and the ignition on to make the radio work?)

Had it been a conventional lever/button operated handbrake then it would be somewhat more obvious that if letting it down makes the car roll then pulling it up might stop it. But that's not the case in the car in question, so you'd do well to retract your comment. Not just you, OP, but the others too.

I had one of these wretched contraptions as a hire car a couple of years ago. My memory is dim, but I'm reasonably convinced that you have to have the key in the ignition and your foot on the footbrake to release the electronic handbrake.

[pbirkett]

Evangelion said:

What I also found pretty unbelievable is the fact that she actually managed to steer round a tent full of people so she knew what the wheel did but she couldn't steer away from the cliff!

assuming the engine wasn't running then the steering would have been pretty bloody heavy without power assistance don't you think?

Some pretty harsh comments in this thread

[RW774]

I would have thought Citroen would have learned about the handbrake by now. When the BX first appeared in the early 80s the hanbrake mechanism operated via the front calipers on to the discs.Not so great when the discs cooled and the applied handbrake was no longer !, especially on a slope.
I think the business about steering around the tent is a bit of a mystery. It`s difficult for an adult to steer a car without the power steering, let alone an 11 year old. I can only think the car was running. Still at least she is fine and we have one less foriegn import on the roads.

[Lord Croker]

nick106 said:

Oooh another PH bandwagon

You expect an 11 year old girl who's more interested in getting laid than asking her seniors on how to operate a vehicle in her spare time, to react to something as if she has been educated in the subject?

1) She probably had no idea what pedals do what
2) The vehicle does not have a standard handbrake you or I would operate (give it a yank)
3) Automatic handbrakes do exist.

That said, the grandparents should have left it in gear.

I thought she did alright.

MadmanO/T People said:

And why was she in the driver's seat, anyway?

I tend to avoid sitting in the back of my car to operate the radio (If you had read the article, you would know she was 'listening to some music'), I assume you have a finger the size of E.T. to operate the radio from the back seat?

Edited by nick106 on Wednesday 19th August 12:22

If you had read the article you'd know that she was listening to music on her mobile, not the car stereo. But let's not let the fact get in the way.

[Jim_Hutch]

From my knowledge of these electronic parking brakes, you have to have the engine running, your foot on the clutch and 1st gear engaged to get it to disengage.

Or, you have to have the engine running and your foot on the foot brake.

They're hard enough to take off that I've had to instruct tyre fitters how to dis-engage the brake in both cars I've had with electronic parking brakes.

[lescombes]

From an Auto Express test on a C4 Picasso..."the electronic handbrake takes a frustrating 10 seconds to disengage".....So what WAS the truth about this one....?